The most commonly repeated question is if the friendship was something beyond a friendship, in other words, if we were gay. I think the best way I can answer that is to cite Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in which he questions underlying themes of sexuality and romantic interests in the context of lies and false truths. In that scenario, I would be both Brick and Skipper. Skipper because of his untimely fate and self-loathing, and Brick because of his insistence on the purity of the friendship, which I do believe to be a pure non-romantic one.
Naively, I set up little systems, soft pinky promises that gave structure to our friendship. I promised to write once in a while and save him funny things on Imgur that I wanted him to see. I wanted to call when I got the chance, and I swore to never cut my hair until I saw him again since he was required to cut his. So began my 2 years of waiting.